A Compost Topic

[wordwiz]

You may know about my garden problem, that a space about 10 feet wide by 40 feet long has a hard time growing anything, including weeds. One type seems to be surviving and getting large, which is great.

So here is what I am doing: letting the weeds grow until they get close to 3 feet tall, then cutting them off at the ground level. Add them to a compost pile. Throughout the garden, crabgrass seems to do well, so I let it grow for a while, then pull it up, roots and all. This stuff, along with the weeds from the other part, gets added to a compost pile. Once I get about 6-8 inches of dead plants - that include roots, beautiful white nodes on the grass and weeds and lots of green leaves - I cover everything with about three-four inches of the "dead dirt."

The goal is to add some "substance" to the dirt. It has the consistency of sand currently. If I use a pitchfork with 8" tines, pry the ground up, there are no clods - period. In your opinion, will adding just the plants be enough to make the soil "thicker" or do I need to add something else. And if so, do I need to do it now or this fall, or can I wait until spring and mix it in with the soil/compost?

Mike

 

[chilehunter]

if ya dont have anything growing in it right now I'd start working it when ya have free time & money to do so, so its ready come next season.

so ya say its kinda like sandy soil towards the top (& clayish downwards if I remember right ?) is there anyways to mix that up ? or mix in some good compost to the soil, lime, manure, etc...

I'd say get a good soil test done, a test that reads everything, & go from there. but start working the soil now in your free time so its ready come next season & have a great garden next season.

also I dont see anything wrong with using weeds to help along the soil other than the seeds from the weeds & you'll have to deal with more weeds later on

 

[wordwiz]

Chilehunter,

This part of the garden has no clay or sand in it at all, just silt. I think that's why nothing grows very well - it will not hold moisture.

I am trying to work the soil a little at a time. That's why I'm removing the top eight inches - so it can be mixed with the weeds and a year-old compost pile.

As for seeds from weeds, thankfully, the weeds are mostly crabgrass and one weed whose name I cannot recall but neither has gone to seed yet.

Mike